Biomarkers of fungal lung infection.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The incidence of lung fungal infections, namely invasive pulmonary aspergillosis (IPA) and mucormycosis, is increasing in neutropenic and nonneutropenic patients. As they are a major cause of death, early diagnosis and antifungal therapy are crucial for outcome. The role of biomarkers in the management of this infections is the scope of this review.

RECENT FINDINGS: Galactomannan in bronchoalveolar lavage shows the best discriminatory power for IPA diagnosis. At baseline, serum galactomannan may be useful to predict outcome and its kinetics may be informative to assess response to antifungal therapy. Recent standardization of PCR technology brought some improvements in IPA and mucormycosis diagnosis. Several new biomarkers are currently under investigation, but none showed a better performance than current available biomarkers. To improve diagnostic accuracy, a combination of biomarkers, including galactomannan, has been proposed.

SUMMARY: Biomarkers may play an important role in the early diagnosis of fungal lung infections and in prognostic assessment and response monitoring, but more research is needed to determine the best strategy for their clinical use.